Retirement... (i.e. what are you going to be after you've grown up)
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Kirun
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Ah yes, here we go - the classic "Puritan work ethic" angle. Doing it for “Jesus,” right? Spare me the sanctimonious, bootlicking virtue-signaling. You really expect anyone to believe that your time grinding in online elf simulators somehow connects you to some grand legacy of righteous labor and divine purpose? Please.
Let's be honest: the idea that you or any other retard still haunting these forums 25+ years later are walking embodiments of your forefathers' work ethic is absolutely laughable. You sit in climate-controlled rooms, yelling into headsets, and think you're part of some heroic tradition of builders and pioneers. Get over yourself.
And enough with the Obama "I built this" heritage cosplay. You didn't build shit. You installed a UI mod and bitched about patch notes. The only thing you've constructed recently is a narrative that gives you an excuse to keep glorifying wage slavery like it's some sacred calling.
This desperate need to feel virtuous for working yourself into dust, or worse, trying to dress it up as some kind of moral high ground? It isn't just pathetic, it's transparent. You're not noble. You're not principled. You're just another cog who mistook obedience for character.
Let's be honest: the idea that you or any other retard still haunting these forums 25+ years later are walking embodiments of your forefathers' work ethic is absolutely laughable. You sit in climate-controlled rooms, yelling into headsets, and think you're part of some heroic tradition of builders and pioneers. Get over yourself.
And enough with the Obama "I built this" heritage cosplay. You didn't build shit. You installed a UI mod and bitched about patch notes. The only thing you've constructed recently is a narrative that gives you an excuse to keep glorifying wage slavery like it's some sacred calling.
This desperate need to feel virtuous for working yourself into dust, or worse, trying to dress it up as some kind of moral high ground? It isn't just pathetic, it's transparent. You're not noble. You're not principled. You're just another cog who mistook obedience for character.
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Cad
scientia potentia est
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You do what you want to do, others do what they want to do. This arrangement works well. We don't have to agree with you. Kindly fuck off.
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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I think I explained my reasons for wanting to keep doing something I see as useful in retirement. I saw how decline hit my grandfather who raised me once he stopped having anything active to be doing. I know I'm like him, so I suspect I will need to find something to keep myself feeling useful. Will it be a "grindy slog"? Hell no. It will be doing what I find rewarding on my own time. Maybe I become Haus the artisanal peach farmer, or Old Man Haus who casts metal doodads and sells them at the monthly swap meet/arts and crafts show, or Evangelical Preacher Haus leading his
Between here and full on "clocked out" I see that I very probably won't have a "hard retirement date" but rather what we'd call in my line of work a "soft launch" of retirement. Where I continue doing what I do, but shift into a part time "call me when you need me" consultative role because I do actually love what I do (cybersecurity)
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Kirun
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Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting people should stop all physical activity the moment they retire. I even mentioned staying active through the gym, gardening, hobbies, all that. Movement and engagement are important, no question.
What is baffling to me, though, is the idea of continuing to work. In the traditional, structured, clock-in-clock-out sense, after already spending over a third of your life doing exactly that. Decades of labor, deadlines, meetings, and stress... and the plan is to just keep going? That genuinely blows my mind.
That said, I do agree with
Cad
to a degree: if continuing to grind away in retirement somehow fulfills you, even if it borders on masochism, then more power to you. I'm not here to take that away from anyone. I'm simply expressing my confusion with that mentality. Personally, I'd rather spend those years finally doing nothing on my own terms, and not feel guilty about it for once.
What is baffling to me, though, is the idea of continuing to work. In the traditional, structured, clock-in-clock-out sense, after already spending over a third of your life doing exactly that. Decades of labor, deadlines, meetings, and stress... and the plan is to just keep going? That genuinely blows my mind.
That said, I do agree with
Cad
to a degree: if continuing to grind away in retirement somehow fulfills you, even if it borders on masochism, then more power to you. I'm not here to take that away from anyone. I'm simply expressing my confusion with that mentality. Personally, I'd rather spend those years finally doing nothing on my own terms, and not feel guilty about it for once.I am hoping to be able to retire at 55 in 10 years.
I thought both of the houses would be paid off by then, but it turns out the mortgage terms were not what I had thought. Work around is if I can come up with an extra 3k a month for the next 10 years they'll be done. (I thought we refinanced in 2021 in to 15 year mortgages, but one is a 20 and the other is a 25 - rates are amazing though)
Provided my company hasn't laid me off (they love doing that once you've reached a certain tenure / salary) , I'll either choose to retire then, or just coast a bit until 58. But, if it becomes too stressful or un-enjoyable, I can just walk away.
I don't know what I'll do after, my son will be 17 and my daughter 15. Seems like a lifetime away. More trips? Finally start that Only Fans for connoisseurs of middle aged man feet I've always talked about? Whatever it is, it has to be something. Something that gets me out of bed, and doing and actually accomplishing something. Writing? It's fun to think about.
I thought both of the houses would be paid off by then, but it turns out the mortgage terms were not what I had thought. Work around is if I can come up with an extra 3k a month for the next 10 years they'll be done. (I thought we refinanced in 2021 in to 15 year mortgages, but one is a 20 and the other is a 25 - rates are amazing though)
Provided my company hasn't laid me off (they love doing that once you've reached a certain tenure / salary) , I'll either choose to retire then, or just coast a bit until 58. But, if it becomes too stressful or un-enjoyable, I can just walk away.
I don't know what I'll do after, my son will be 17 and my daughter 15. Seems like a lifetime away. More trips? Finally start that Only Fans for connoisseurs of middle aged man feet I've always talked about? Whatever it is, it has to be something. Something that gets me out of bed, and doing and actually accomplishing something. Writing? It's fun to think about.
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Punko
Macho Ma'am
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Quevy
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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I don't really expect my kids to take care of my, but I'm hoping they do. My current goals is to build a multi-generation home, so I can help my son with his family when he gets older, and his family can provide a little bit of support (not financial) in return.
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Kirun
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Yes? Where do you think so many of humanity's greatest works and scientific breakthroughs came from, if not from the sheer boredom and mental stillness experienced by our ancestors?
They didn't have smartphones buzzing every five minutes, endless streaming services, or a constant drip-feed of digital noise. What they did have was time. Vast, uninterrupted stretches of it. Time to think, to reflect, to question the nature of the universe and their place in it. And from that came innovation, art, philosophy, and discovery.
Boredom can be one of the most powerful catalysts for human creativity. It's not necessarily something to avoid, it can be something to embrace. Especially in today's environment, where we're constantly bombarded with dopamine hits from every direction - social media, notifications, algorithm-curated content, 24/7 news cycles, and a thousand other digital distractions all competing for our attention.
We've become so conditioned to constant stimulation that even a few moments of silence or inactivity feel uncomfortable, even intolerable.
Mahes
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Te be clear, your definition of work and what my current job is, are two different things. Yes I am in an office monitoring a SCADA system for the waste water facility I currently work at. However, I have the pleasure of being able to watch anything I want or play video games as I do this. I raided with Faceless on Selo for 1.5 years as an example of what I can do while at work. Also, I can at any time go outside and walk the plant that is surrounded by 150 acres of woods. I often do this as it allows to be see, hear, or smell anything that might be wrong that the SCADA system does not show. It also gets me some good walking exercise in a fairly natural environment. I work 2nd shift so I can sleep in the mornings and my supervisor is gone one hour after I get to the plant. As I am also Shift-lead, I get to make the rules on my shift. I have more freedom than most people do on their jobs.Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting people should stop all physical activity the moment they retire. I even mentioned staying active through the gym, gardening, hobbies, all that. Movement and engagement are important, no question.
What is baffling to me, though, is the idea of continuing to work. In the traditional, structured, clock-in-clock-out sense, after already spending over a third of your life doing exactly that. Decades of labor, deadlines, meetings, and stress... and the plan is to just keep going? That genuinely blows my mind.
That said, I do agree with
This is why I do not dread the idea of working part time for a little extra cash on this job. Oh no, I might work 8 hours a week doing what I do now. The job is why we have other retired operators who have no problem also working part time.
Now if this were private industry, then yes I would not work part time.
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Cad
scientia potentia est
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The entire point of retirement is doing whatever you want. If whatever you want means chasing work goals, thats fine and thats what YOU want to do. Retirement just means freedom from being FORCED to do this or that because of financial reality.
Gardening to me sounds like work, some people love it. The entire point is only doing what you CHOOSE to do, not what you HAVE to do.
Gardening to me sounds like work, some people love it. The entire point is only doing what you CHOOSE to do, not what you HAVE to do.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Buddy, you are the one stating you don't understand why someone might want to keep working after retirement. I just posted one possible reason, given that many of us were raised that way. Dial it back a notch. I'm not judging you or anyone else. You do you, boo.
Kirun
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Sport, let's get one thing straight - anyone posting regularly on these forums is not a shining example of the "Puritan work ethic." Let's not kid ourselves. If you're spending your free time passionately debating elf stats and raid mechanics in a fantasy roleplay forum two and a half decades later, you are not out there rising at dawn to build barns and tame the land.
You can virtue signal all day about how you were "raised to work hard" or how it's "in your blood," but let's be real - there's zero chance you're actually living that out while also chronically lurking in the digital equivalent of a medieval LARP circle. You're not your great-great-grandfather tilling fields from sunup to sundown. You're a guy with 26,000 forum posts and strong opinions about virtual shoulder armor. Let's have a little self-awareness.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Amigo, some people just love to work. The work itself brings them happiness. My current career is not that way for me, but I know at least one other that I could do happily until I drop dead, but it doesn't pay anywhere near enough to live off of for now.
I'm not ascribing virtue to it. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong. I'm just providing alternative points of view, because you said you couldn't understand.
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simmer down fatty. just because you work in a hot ass warehouse all day doesn't mean you have to be so butt blasted on every topic.
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Haus
I am Big Balls!
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So we have folks calling other people "boo" and "sport". I wonder when we'll escalate to "friend" and "buddy"?
Let me check a few my achievements while I have been lurking on this MMO LARP board for years now...
All things I have in my mental makeup because of how I was raised. All things that, when I do them, it feels strangely "therapeutic". Even though life led me into IT and Cybersecurity, and marrying who I did led me into MMOs, when I boil it all down, I still feel more accomplished building things, fixing things with my hands, and working on things. Which I know are attributes I can most easily see in the grandfather who raised me. Be it nature, nurture, or some blending of them, that is, in fact how I was "raised" and what's "in my blood".
I've said more than once that if I could make the money I make in cybersecurity as a carpenter or mechanic I'd be in a lot better shape and probably perfectly fine with the fact that I wouldn't even know what an "Advanced Incident Response Plan" is.
I agree more with the sentiment that in retirement you still do what fulfills you, you're just at a point of being unshackled from needing to do it out of necessity to survive and pay bills.
Let me check a few my achievements while I have been lurking on this MMO LARP board for years now...
- Gutted to the studs and rebuilt two bathrooms in my house.
- Gutted and redesigned/rebuilt the kitchen in my house
- Repaired/reframed 80% of the framing studs in the detached garage behind my house, then re-clad, re-sheathed, re-painted it
- More car repairs than I think I want to remember...
All things I have in my mental makeup because of how I was raised. All things that, when I do them, it feels strangely "therapeutic". Even though life led me into IT and Cybersecurity, and marrying who I did led me into MMOs, when I boil it all down, I still feel more accomplished building things, fixing things with my hands, and working on things. Which I know are attributes I can most easily see in the grandfather who raised me. Be it nature, nurture, or some blending of them, that is, in fact how I was "raised" and what's "in my blood".
I've said more than once that if I could make the money I make in cybersecurity as a carpenter or mechanic I'd be in a lot better shape and probably perfectly fine with the fact that I wouldn't even know what an "Advanced Incident Response Plan" is.
I agree more with the sentiment that in retirement you still do what fulfills you, you're just at a point of being unshackled from needing to do it out of necessity to survive and pay bills.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Next thing you know we'll be positively uncivil with one another.So we have folks calling other people "boo" and "sport". I wonder when we'll escalate to "friend" and "buddy"?
Let me check a few my achievements while I have been lurking on this MMO LARP board for years now...
All of those were pretty serious work, lots of sweat (especially rebuilding a garage in August in Texas, that was a party), lots of "work".
- Gutted to the studs and rebuilt two bathrooms in my house.
- Gutted and redesigned/rebuilt the kitchen in my house
- Repaired/reframed 80% of the framing studs in the detached garage behind my house, then re-clad, re-sheathed, re-painted it
- More car repairs than I think I want to remember...
All things I have in my mental makeup because of how I was raised. All things that, when I do them, it feels strangely "therapeutic". Even though life led me into IT and Cybersecurity, and marrying who I did led me into MMOs, when I boil it all down, I still feel more accomplished building things, fixing things with my hands, and working on things. Which I know are attributes I can most easily see in the grandfather who raised me. Be it nature, nurture, or some blending of them, that is, in fact how I was "raised" and what's "in my blood".
I've said more than once that if I could make the money I make in cybersecurity as a carpenter or mechanic I'd be in a lot better shape and probably perfectly fine with the fact that I wouldn't even know what an "Advanced Incident Response Plan" is.
I agree more with the sentiment that in retirement you still do what fulfills you, you're just at a point of being unshackled from needing to do it out of necessity to survive and pay bills.
My ocd/autism has always found peace when I am putting things together. It's why I enjoyed working in food service so much. Putting things together for people for hours on end.
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Kirun
Buzzfeed Editor
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Please, go easy on me. I know I could never hope to match the legendary "Puritan Work Ethic" you clearly embody - hammering away at that keyboard from the comfort of your ergonomic office chair, really putting in the grind at your demanding IT "job." The finger strain alone must be excruciating. Truly, your ancestors would weep with pride at the sheer fortitude it takes to troubleshoot printers and sit through Zoom meetings all day. Salt of the earth, you.
And could you please share your workout routine too? I’m just dying to know how you got so unbelievably ripped and irresistible. It must be all those high-intensity forum posts and heavy lifting of your own ego. One day, with enough discipline and keyboard reps, maybe I can be half as sexy and impressive as you. #Goals
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